Have you ever wondered what sets your local business apart from other local businesses online?
How do you make sure you rank higher than your competitors on Google? Given the fact that most local businesses today have an online presence, you need to set yourself apart from your competition if you are keen on enjoying competitive advantage. Below are some of the most important local ranking factors to consider when you want to increase traffic to your local business website.
1. City/state in the Google My Business (GMB) page title
This is by far the first and most important local ranking factor to consider. Before you consider any other local ranking factors, you should make sure you include your location i.e. name of your city/state in the GMB page title. Google offers free listing of local businesses.
GMB puts local businesses information on search, maps as well as Google + so that local searchers can find local businesses easily. Including your location is therefore crucial to the success of your local ranking efforts. It is also important to include the proper GMB category associations for the best results.
2. Domain authority
This is another local ranking factor that has been and is still important. Domain authority is simply a measure of how powerful a domain is. It is based on the age, popularity as well as the size of a website. Google has always favored and still favors older, more popular and bigger domains in regards to local ranking.
3. Quality of inbound links
The quality of back links or inbound links (links to your site placed on other sites) also influences local ranking significantly. Local sites with the best/highest quality back links attract the best local search ranking. As a result, you should focus on linking to high quality websites/popular websites only as opposed to just any other sites. You should also focus on getting inbound links from multiple high quality sources as opposed to one source only.
4. Geographic keyword relevance
You also have to incorporate local keywords naturally in your content as well as the domain name (if possible) to rank highly on local search results. Google identifies such keyword strategies as highly relevant when issuing search results to searchers in your local area. Creating content based on location i.e. guides to services/products in your area is a great way to boost geographic keyword relevance and enjoy better local search ranking.
5. Location in all/most title tags
You also stand a better chance of ranking higher for local search results in your niche if you include your city/state in most if not all title tags. This is a great local ranking factor because it makes it easier for Google to find relevant searched local information in your site.
The above information highlights some of the most important local ranking factors to consider when looking at how to increase website ranking in Google. Although there may be other important local ranking factors to consider i.e. local reviews, click through rate etc., the above factors are among the most important.
Nevertheless, it’s important to remember that Google’s local search algorithm evolves continuously.
